Chapter Text
Remus had said goodbye to his parents and boarded the train to Hogwarts before any of the other students. He made his way to the very last compartment, sure that no one else would come back that far, and loaded his trunk by himself, werewolf strength and all. His body sagged heavily down onto the bench of his compartment, fatigue from the last moon still weighing down his body. Without meaning to, he slipped into a light sleep with his head resting against the window of the train.
Sirius stiffly hugged his mum goodbye, shook his father’s hand, and they and Regulus departed to go back home. He looked around him in wonder, taking in all the interesting looking wizards and nearly laughing at the few terribly confused muggles dropping off their first-years, just like him. While he people-watched, a blur raced across in front of his eyes, and something slammed hard into him, knocking him flat to the ground. He sat up quickly to yell at whoever hit him only to find that they were right next to him, as they’d fallen as well. Sirius looked the boy over. He had dark hair that stuck up wildly around his head and lightly tanned skin that was evidence of hours spent playing in the sun. A quaffle was rolling away a few feet from them, and was likely what had flown past Sirius first. The boy rubbed at his skinned chin and began to grope around on the ground.
“What are you doing?” Sirius asked angrily. The back of his head and his tailbone hurt from hitting the hard stone.
“Sorry about that, mate. Couldn’t let my quaffle get away.” The boy sounded unnaturally happy for just smashing his jaw on the ground. “Think you could help me find my glasses?” Oh, so that was it. Sirius looked around and spotted a pair of round glasses about a meter away, in the opposite direction of the quaffle. He pushed himself up and stepped over to grab them.
“Here, mate,” he said, holding them out to the boy. His hand raised up, but not toward Sirius. He couldn’t help but laugh. “You are bloody blind without these, aren’t you?” He placed them in the boy’s hand, and he slipped them back over his nose. He blinked up at Sirius before smiling and holding out his hand.
“Hey, I’m James,” The boy said.
“Sirius Black,” He replied, shaking the boy’s hand. Then he used his other arm to pull James up from the ground. James turned in a circle before spotting the quaffle and reaching out to pick it up.
Sirius hadn’t been afforded much time in his life with other kids his age beside Regulus, so he was eager to talk. “You a quidditch fan?”
“Yeah, I’m crazy about it. So’s my Dad. I’m gonna be a Catcher for Gryffindor someday.”
Sirius’ mood fell a bit. Gryffindor, huh? So they were destined enemies from the beginning.
“I’ll be in Slytherin for sure. My whole family has been, ever since the founders,” Sirius said shyly.
“Well that’s okay. As long as you’re not a slimy snake!” James said, smiling. Sirius tried to return the grin, but was already worrying about the sorting. Oh well, he could still enjoy the company until the ceremony, he supposed.
Sirius headed with James back towards his parents, dragging his cart behind him. James hugged his parents as well and they left, and Sirius and James helped each other to load their luggage onto the train. Only a few of the compartments were full, but they decided to head to the back so they could talk uninterrupted. At the very back, they ducked into the last compartment, only to find that another boy was already inside asleep. Sirius thought he looked rather drab; his robes too big, patched up hand-me-downs obviously, and his hair ruffled and his face scarred. Sirius almost suggested heading to a different compartment, away from the boy whose face made Sirius’ stomach do twisting somersaults, but James had already plopped himself down on the bench.
“This is perfect!” James said quietly. “Privacy from everyone, and maybe he’ll wake up and talk to us!” Some part of Sirius believed that James was too optimistic in his assumptions of people wanting to be friends with him, but he shrugged and pushed past James to sit across from the other boy anyway. While James got out a pack of cards, Sirius looked over at the sleeping boy across from him. He had a raggedy coat draped over his shoulders and his cheek smushed up against the glass. His slow breaths shook the longer hair that fell against his cheek. Despite all that should have told him otherwise, Sirius thought the boy was really… pretty. Part of him was repulsed at the idea, but the larger part was too busy looking at the long eyelashes brushing the boy’s scarred cheek to care that he had just acknowledged fancying a boy.
Sirius knew he wasn’t like other boys. Never in his life had he found a girl pretty. He thought they were too… soft. But he would take his time looking at other boys as they passed, trying to figure out what exactly made them so fascinating .
Sirius was dragged from his thoughts when the door to the compartment opened again, revealing a short, chubby boy in a muggle hoodie and jeans. His face was flushed red and he looked as though he was about to cry. When he noticed the three other passengers in the compartment, however, he paled.
“C-can I… can I sit here?” He asked softly, gesturing to the spot next to the sleeping boy. “It’s just… everywhere else is full- or- or the kids are mean.” He ended the sentence with his head down, his voice so quiet that Sirius almost hadn’t heard him.
“Of course!” James said, ever the cheerful stranger. “You can play cards with us!” The boy practically jumped into the compartment, and James helped him put his trunk up on the shelf. When he sat back down, he looked the boy in the eye. “I’m James, by the way. This is Sirius, and that’s Elvendork. Don’t actually know his name yet, been passed out since we got here.” He added the last part at the boy’s odd look. Sirius raised a hand in greeting when the boy looked over at him.
“I’m Peter. I’m just a first year,” the boy said shyly. James smiled.
“So are we!” Then he turned to Sirius, “You are a first year, right?”
“Yeah,” Sirius replied distractedly. That hair! Sirius just wanted to brush the locks away from his sleeping face. He wanted to touch this boy’s face. All over.
“But, you’re so… cool. How are you not freaking out right now?” Peter asked, staring at James with a sort of wonder in his eyes.
“I’m excited, that’s all. Plus, my dad told me to be nice to everyone on the train, you never know who could accidently become your friend for life!”
The train was going before long, and they were off on their first journey to Hogwarts. Sirius leaned back in the seat, taking a deep breath, and tried to stay engaged in the conversation, but his eyes kept falling back to the sleeping boy. He kept wishing him to wake up, just so he could see his eyes. He wished he could tell what color they were. That seemed an important thing to know about someone, their eye color. Every pair of eyes he’d ever seen had looked dull gray to him.
The door of the compartment slid open once again, and an older witch popped her head in. “Anything off the trolley, dears?” she asked cheerfully, gesturing to the plethora of candy, pastries, and chocolate she kept.
“Whoa!” James, Sirius, and Peter said at once, standing to look at the wares. They each selected a few things, and Sirius bought an extra chocolate frog for the boy. He’d feel bad waking him when he looked so tired, but he’d also feel bad if he didn’t get any sweets. They all settled back down into their seats, gorging themselves on the wizard sweets. James cracked open a pack of Bertie Bott’s every-flavour beans and sighed.
“Man, I wish I knew what colors these were. I hate trying to guess. You know how many times I’ve gotten earwax flavor cause I thought it was caramel?” He pulled a couple out, stared at them for a few seconds, and popped them in his mouth. Peter and Sirius ended up in stitches laughing at how violently he spit the beans out. “Ugh! Bogey!”
Apparently their voices had been loud, as the boy across from Sirius finally stirred. With a look at James, they all decided to wait for him to wake up. Finally, the boy opened his eyes. Sirius looked down as he looked up so he wouldn’t be caught staring.
“Good morning mate, s’bout time you woke up!” James said happily. “We’re about halfway to Hogwarts right now. M’name’s James. How ‘bout yours?”
The boy yawned. “Remus. Remus Lupin.” His voice was warm, quiet, and shy.
“Nice to meet you. This here’s Sirius and Peter. We’re all first years. I guess you are too?” The boy must’ve nodded, as Sirius heard no response, but James said “Far out! By the way, the trolley witch already came through, but we didn’t wanna wake you. I think Sirius bought you a frog through, right mate?” He elbowed Sirius at the end of his sentence. Sirius jumped and grabbed at the pentagonal box, finally looking up and into the boy’s eyes. They were as warm as his voice. They were probably Sirius’ favorite pair of eyes he’d ever seen. And with a start, he realized why.
Remus Lupin’s eyes were in color.
Startled, Sirius could only stare. Remus stared back, but not at his eyes. Remus was looking at his mouth, which was hanging open wide. Sirius looked over at James to see if he saw the same thing, but got another shock.
“James!” He yelled in surprise. The boy’s hand stopped its course of bringing a jelly bean towards his mouth.
His eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “Wha?” He asked suspiciously, voice muffled by a wad of candy in his cheek. He glanced back and forth at the three others in the compartment, hand frozen in air, as Sirius tried to figure out what the hell he was seeing.
“Your- your jelly bean! It’s so… bright!” James made a face, looking down at the bean in his hand. Staring at it as if to figure out its secrets.
“Uh… sure. Looks to me like the same as the last three I ate. Am I missing something?”
“No, I mean…” Sirius looked around for something to compare the color to. He looked out the window and cried out. There were so many colors! The sky, the trees, the grass. He remembered what his parents had told him as a boy. The sky is blue, the leaves are green, the sunset is orange, and pink, and gold. Green. The jelly bean was green. He told James as much.
“Mate, are you alright?” James searched Sirius’ face, and realization dawned on him. Sirius took the time to study James’ eyes. They were a mix. Green like leaves, brown like the tree trunks. “You mean… you can see the colors? Mate, bloody hell, why didn’t you tell me?”
Sirius laughed, unable to wipe the grin from his face. “That’s just it, I couldn’t see them a few minutes ago. Not until I looked at… at Remus.” His smile fell as he looked back at the boy in question, who still stared at him, and suddenly felt very embarrassed for saying that out loud. Now everyone would know he fancies a boy. But apparently Remus felt exactly the same. He had to know for sure.
“Remus, what color are my eyes?”
“Uh…,” the boy said, looking brain dead, “They’re grey.” Sirius’ face fell. Of course it was too good to be true. “But that box,” continued Remus, his voice gaining confidence, “is blue. Not blue like the sky, but darker.” Sirius realized that Remus was pointing at the chocolate frog box still clasped in his hand. He looked down and sure enough, the box was a deep, vibrant blue.
“Yeah!” Sirius agreed enthusiastically. Then he held the chocolate frog out across the compartment. “This is for you, by the way.”
Remus’ cheeks turned color, becoming brighter than the rest of his face. Blushing, Sirius thought. Remus Lupin was blushing. Blushing was pink. His mother had told him so when she did her makeup in the morning.
“Thanks,” he said, dropping his eyes as he took the blue box. Sirius looked up and James and Peter were staring at them in total confusion and maybe a little grossed out, but Sirius could not have been happier.
Sirius and Remus stuck together all the way to the castle, comparing colors and deciphering their names. By the time they entered the Great Hall of Hogwarts for the first time, they had worked out enough to distinguish the house banners above the long tables by color alone. James went on and on about wanting to be sorted into Red and Gold Gryffindor. And that was the perfect color to describe the warmth of Remus’ eyes: Gold. And he could not look away no matter how hard he tried. Remus was possibly the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his short life. He may not have understood love at his naive eleven years, but he knew that he wanted to be close to Remus. And Remus seemed to want the same.
The tight-lipped lady in the tree-leaf-green robes called his name and he stepped up onto the raised platform and turned to look out at all the students in the hall as he sat on the wooden stool. Another first year girl caught his eye, as her hair was a bright red-orange. He knew people could have red hair, he’d heard of it before, but the sight was so odd that he was startled when a darkness fell over his eyes. The hat.
“Interesting,” Sirius heard a voice in his ear, “I’ve never had a Black quite like you, before.” Sirius was unsure whether or not that was a compliment, and he didn’t have the time to analyze it before the hat spoke up again. “You have a strong desire to prove yourself, but as your own person. You do not care for tradition. Very odd, indeed. I do, however, see a desire in you that I do not see in your ancestors: acceptance. You wish to belong with those similar to you, and prove the strengths you have inside, not shadowed by your family or name. I know just what to do with you, boy.” Then, ringing out across the Great Hall, the hat called “Gryffindor!”
Sirius was in shock, even as the hat was lifted off his head and he could see the beautiful color around him again. He looked down into the gathered group of first years to see James, Peter, and Remus smiling up at him. James was pumping a fist in the air, cheering along with the Gryffindor table. The Slytherins, he noticed as he stepped off towards his new house, were in varying degrees of shock as well. A Black outside of Slytherin? Unheard of. Sirius hoped he could live up to the honor the hat had given him: something to separate him, finally, from the hateful tradition of his family.
As the sorting continued, Sirius was ecstatic to find that Remus, Peter, and James were all sorted into Gryffindor with him.
When the feast began, an abundance of colorful food filled the table, and Sirius gasped. How had he lived without knowing broccoli was so green? It almost made it worth eating!
James, Sirius noticed, seemed to be taking interest in the red-haired girl he saw earlier. He looked at her happily, tried to get her attention, but she seemed to ignore him. Finally, James turned back to the three of them with a huff. “Do any of you remember her name?”
“Lily Evans,” Remus said casually, lifting a goblet of yellow-orange pumpkin juice to his pink lips. The scars across his cheek looked silver in the candlelight. Again, Sirius was enthralled with the colors of Remus Lupin.
“Hey, Evans!” James called teasingly. Finally, the redhead turned her deep forest eyes to look at James angrily. She stared hard at him for a second, then dropped her now wide eyes, a deep red blush coming over her cheeks. Sirius looked back to James, who had a similarly shocked look on his face, though there was joy in it as well. He continued to stare at Lily as he calmly asked, “Hey, Sirius, what do you call her hair?”
“What?”
“The color. Of Evans’ hair. What do you call it?”
“You mean, you can see it? Is it bright, like fiery and warm?” James took a second to think about it, still staring at the girl’s bowed head, and nodded slowly. Sirius looked over at a grinning Remus. “That’s a mix of orange and red. The Gryffindor flag is red and gold. Remus’ eyes are gold. Carrots are orange.” He said all of this in the span of a few seconds, trying to distinguish the colors for him. James seemed not to have heard him, staring wistfully at the redhead.
“Colors are beautiful, Sirius,” James breathed finally. Sirius could only laugh and look back into Remus’ warm eyes.
“Couldn’t agree more, James.”